“Thank goodness it happened today”: a brief scare for Marquez, Q2 secured and an eye on the rivals

A minor hiccup for Marc Marquez during Friday’s MotoGP practice in Qatar, but no trouble getting into Q2. His comments at the end of the day.

The most dramatic moment of today’s Practice was undoubtedly Marc Marquez suddenly stopping at the side of the track. The reason is clear from the cover image: the chain literally flew off Ducati Desmosedici #93, forcing the 2025 MotoGP champion and championship leader to briefly cut his session short and push his way back to the pits, with help from the Ducati team. But it did not cause too many problems: he ultimately finished second, +0.142 behind Fabio Di Giannantonio, securing direct passage to Q2 for tomorrow’s qualifying without difficulty. What a scare...

He has his first match point, but there was a twist on this opening day. “The positive thing is that it happened during practice.” Marc Marquez played down the incident. We have, unfortunately, seen KTM chains come off on more than one occasion, but it is a rare occurrence with Ducati. “I didn’t ask how many kilometres I had done with that chain,” he added, as reported by Speedweek at the end of the first day of action at the Losail International Circuit. “I have confidence in my team; they’ll know how to fix the problem.”

“We got off to a good start, and towards the end of practice I found a good rhythm,” the Catalan rider added. “Now I have to focus entirely on qualifying because starting from the front row, or at the very least the second row, is essential in MotoGP these days. It’s also clear that this weekend will be difficult because many riders are fast. Diggia and Bezzecchi seem to be the strongest in terms of pace, but Martin and Bagnaia have also been quick. Besides them, I also see Raul Fernandez as one to watch.”

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